Review - An intimate evening with Graham Nash

Graham Nash walked on stage not as though he was about to play for a stadium full of strangers but to a roomful of old friends. That's what it was like to be at 'An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories' in the Historic Stanley Concert Hall on Monday. It was a show with all the rules of a house concert listening room.

The first half of his show consisted mostly of material from 'This Path Tonight' and 'Over the Years...' which came out in June and features 50 years of hits and more than a dozen previously unreleased demos and mixes.

Nash was accompanied by longtime collaborator and former Sting guitarist Shane Fontayne on guitars and vocals and CSN keyboardist/vocalist Todd Caldwell. The trio played off each well, trading solos and filling the space left without a rhythm section.

The second act catered more to audience favorites: songs from the Hollies like "Bus Stop," and his years with Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young) like "Lady of the Island," Marrakesh Express" and "Teach Your Children," the last of which Nash dedicated to the Parkland survivors turned student activists with a music video he created earlier this year. He said the gesture was an opportunity for us to learn from students, as adults often forget they can do.

The intimacy of the venue lended itself to Nash's storytelling as he introduced classic songs with the mundane moments that inspired them. He spoke of a friend/drug dealer that bet he couldn't finish a song before driving to the airport, a friend that lost that particular bet: cue "Just a Song Before I Go." He invoked an image of walking arm in arm with Joni Mitchell as she admires items behind shop windows: cue "Our House."

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Though many of the songs Nash played were politically-charged, he reminded the audience that he is an optimist at the end of the set. While venues cherish their history of performers, few do it in a way like The Stanley: Through storytelling that indicates each artist left a small piece of themselves behind for the concert hall to celebrate for years to come. Now Nash's performance goes down as one of them.

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